DesignAday

Blog of the Week: Icon-O-Cast

Fri, 09 May 2008 23:59:00 -0400

There aren’t very many design-related podcasts out there. A select few are of consistently high quality. Lunar Design started Icon-O-Cast in June of 2007. They’ve been releasing one or two episodes per Month ever since. From interviews with the likes of Don Norman to conference presentations and in-house discussions, John Edson and other Lunar employees cover a lot of ground. There are five “departments” that podcasts may fall into: Cover Story, From the News and Reviews Desk, Transmissions from Earth, Man in the Moon, and Trendspotting. Topics touch all areas of design. They’ve discussed the industrial design of coffee makers, sustainability, outsourcing to India, and the “mysteries and wonder of Interaction Design”.

Episodes average a very listenable twenty minutes, and the audio quality is good. Subscribe via iTunes.

In the Details: Button Hook

Thu, 08 May 2008 02:49:17 -0400

All of the cars I’ve driven in the past have had pretty standard switches for the automatic windows. They are vertically-oriented, two-way switches. Push down, and the window goes down. Push up, and the window goes up. My Mazda5 has a different control that I have noticed in other cars recently. It’s located on the arm rest on the door, so it is on a horizontal surface. Right off the bat, this decreases the intuitiveness of the control. Don Norman speaks of natural mapping in The Design of Everyday Things.

Mapping is a technical term meaning the relationship between two things, in this case between controls and their movements and the results in the world.

The control isn’t oriented in the direction that the window will move. They’ve done something a little strange to get around this. The control is hook-shaped. There is a depression that allows the finger to hook under the control and pull up on it. So, pushing on the button depresses it causing the window to descend. Pulling up on it causes the window to rise.

For some reason, I’m having a hard time getting used to this. I still see it as pushing forward and pulling back, which equates to closing and opening respectively.

Instant Winner

Wed, 07 May 2008 07:55:29 -0400

The internet has improved a lot of things and created wonderful new experiences. Due to this success, it seems that everything now must have a web component. This doesn’t always result in an improved experience.

I don’t care all that much about sweepstakes, but it struck me over the weekend that there is no longer such a thing as an “instant winner”. It used to be that you would scratch off a card, peel a label off of your giant-size soda, or twist off a bottle cap to reveal the phrase “You win!”. That object was then a coupon that could be exchanged for the prize. These days, all that is revealed is a string of letters and numbers. You must then remember to visit a website, register for an account, and enter the code the next time you are online. Only then do you know if and what you have won.

To me, it’s too much hassle. I’m not willing to make the effort, given the odds of winning something I care about. I certainly won’t be more inclined to make a purchase for a chance to win, and isn’t that the ultimate purpose of such sweepstakes?

Web Form Design

Tue, 06 May 2008 07:55:54 -0400

Luke Wroblewski’s new book, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks, has just been published by Rosenfeld Media. This promises to be a very insightful book, and I’m looking forward to reading it. I’m also particularly interested in this book because I made a small contribution to it. I wrote one of several “perspectives” included in the book, explaining some of the detailed decisions made in the design of an Incident Report used by Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians in the U.S. military.

From Rosenfeld’s site:

Forms make or break the most crucial online interactions: checkout (commerce), registration (community), data input (participation and sharing), and any task requiring information entry. In Web Form Design, Luke Wroblewski draws on original research, his considerable experience at Yahoo! and eBay, and the perspectives of many of the field’s leading designers to show you everything you need to know about designing effective and engaging Web forms.

If forms are typically part of the projects you work on, I expect this to be a valuable reference.

Free Speech

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:56:17 -0400

I was traveling this weekend to attend a cousin’s wedding. On the drive there, my car was damaged when a piece of metal pipe flew off of a flatbed truck and glanced off my roof. Fortunately, nobody was injured and the damage to the car was minor. When I called Allstate to report the incident, I was first confronted with an automated answering system.

This was not surprising, and I listened, waiting for the menu of options. I was taken aback when the recorded voice instructed me to describe the issue I needed help with. It proceeded to give me an example. Not expecting this, I hadn’t been giving it my full attention. My first attempt was something like “Uh, I need to, uh, report a claim.” The word “claim” I had fortunately picked up from the provided example, or I would have been at a complete loss. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t understand, and gave me a second chance to state the reason for which I was calling. Better prepared, this time I said, “I need to make a new claim.” This was close enough—the system spoke its interpretation of my request, and I made it into a standard menu system that got me to a claims agent.

Chances are, the system is smart enough to have understood me if I told it that I was in an accident, that my car was damaged, or something similar. I’m going to assume that since this system is in service, it is reasonably capable. What I find really interesting is my own reaction to this new, completely unexpected interaction. Obviously, it was not introduced sufficiently. It took me by surprise, and I was therefore not able to coherently communicate with it. I immediately tried to think of what words I should use that it would understand. I assumed it would be dumber than it likely is. It didn’t give me enough time to consider the implications. So, I floundered, stuttered, and made illegible (to a computer) noises.

I would be extremely interested to see the results of their user testing, assuming such tests were performed. I wonder if they performed tests in which the users did not receive any explanation prior to that given by the system.

Blog of the Week: Brand New

Fri, 02 May 2008 09:28:15 -0400

What do Ford, Starz, Discovery Channel, the Seattle Founders FC, Thomson Reuters, SanDisk, and Intuit all have in common? They’re all rebranding themselves with new logos, and thus have all recently been featured on Brand New, one of the blogs from UnderConsideration. Brand New, on an almost daily basis, publishes opinions of corporate and brand identity work. Beginning with a visual comparison of the old mark to the new one, every post offers an informed, intelligent critique. They not only examine the graphic design of the mark, but give careful consideration to the market, competitors, trends, and any other forces that may be influencing the change. Many posts are accompanied by photos depicting applications of the mark or covering the history of the company’s logos. Posts are well researched, typically providing the company’s own marketing-speak about the transition and the description of the mark by the firm that designed it.

Brand New regularly offers content of real quality by authors that obviously know their subject. If branding and logotypes fall within your areas of interest, make it a daily stop in your browsing.

Keyboard Tradeoffs

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:15:20 -0400

For the past four and a half years, I’ve been using Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I love the flexibility provided by the cordless devices. When I ordered my new Mac Pro, I went ahead and upgraded to the new wireless keyboard and cordless Mighty Mouse.

This was a bit of a gamble. The previous wireless keyboard was full-size. It had a number keypad, full-size cursor keys, 16 function keys, volume control keys, and the additional help, home, page up/down, end, and delete keys. I use the keypad to enter numbers in Quicken a good bit. The delete key deletes characters in front of the cursor.

The new keyboard is much smaller in every dimension. It’s wafer thin and sexy as all get-out, constructed of the same aluminum as the Mac Pro itself. I love the feel of the keys. It’s a pleasure to type on. These benefits come at a steep price, however.

I miss the number keypad and delete button. The cursor keys are included, but they are half size. There are only 12 function keys, which is enough for me, but most of them play double-duty, requiring that the “fn” key at the lower left be depressed to use them as function keys, as opposed to the special functions, just like on Apple’s laptop keyboards.

I’m glad I got it—it is exquisitely designed—but I wish they had an extended version.

Upgrade

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:34:21 -0400

Tonight, I’m saying goodbye to an old friend and welcoming a new member of the family. I purchased a new Mac Pro to replace my 4.5 year old Power Mac G5. While I’m excited about the new toy, I always feel a bit sentimental when I retire an old Mac. It served me well.

Apple has done a truly amazing job on their process for moving to a new machine. I was prompted to connect the two machines with a Firewire cable. It automatically copied over all of my files, settings, applications, etc. With only a few minor exceptions, it was a completely seamless transition. It’s really quite an impressive feat. Aside from a dramatic increase in performance, it’s as if nothing changed.

Sent from my iPhone

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:32:58 -0400

Thus reads the default signature in Mail on the iPhone. Thus far, I have not made the effort to change it, nor have many others I know. Are we declaring bragging rights? Is it due to a desire to be recognized as a member of the club, much as early PT Cruiser owners made congratutory honks and waves at each other? Or is it an excuse—a plea to forgive typos, sentence fragments, and brevity?

More importantly, how is it received? Other iPhone owners will understand. Those without may read with envy or with contempt, or even with indifference.

And how does it differ, in sending as well as receiving, from the instigating “Sent from my Blackberry”?

In the Details: Volume Control

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:02:58 -0400

Another feature of my new Mazda5 that I really like is the automatic volume adjustment. The volume increases as the car speeds up and decreases as it slows down. The increment at which it increases and decreases can be set.

Like the rain-sensing windshield wipers, this is a case in which automation makes perfect sense. It has made me quite aware of the frequency by which I manually adjust the volume in my PT Cruiser to account for road noise, engine noise, rain hitting the windshield, and the like.

Perhaps it is a trivial matter to reach over and twist a knob. I’d rather keep my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road.

Synchrosurprised

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:16:30 -0400

Back in November, I wrote about Microsoft’s new Sync system, which is currently available in Ford vehicles. I was impressed when a reviewer reported that the speech recognition actually worked well.

Some of the people I’ve been working with the past two weeks flew up from Charleston, SC and got a rental car—a Ford equipped with Sync. I rode with them to lunch, and as we were returning, they decided it was time for some entertainment.

Ding. “Play artist The Beatles.”
“Playing artist The Eagles.”

Hilarity ensued.

Not once were we able to achieve the desired result. I’ll give Microsoft one thing: it certainly was entertaining.

“Never tell me the odds.”

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:43:41 -0400

Han Solo, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

How many times have I heard a respected celebrity claim that the only reason they did the things they did was because they didn’t realize at the outset how difficult they would be? And yet, they were successful. We don’t hear about the failures.

My training as a designer—the skills, processes, techniques, tools, and talent—gives me the confidence necessary to take on almost any problem that needs to be solved. It doesn’t matter what domain I’ll be working in, who I’ll be working with, or what technology is involved. I know that, while I may not be able to solve the problem myself, I will add value, significantly contributing to the solution.

There are those who take umbrage with this attitude, claiming that it is awfully arrogant to believe that design is the answer to everything. However, this is not the claim I’m making. Not every problem belongs to design, nor is design necessary for a successful solution. I think it is fair to say, though, that design can benefit any solution.

When asked the question,
“What are the boundaries of design?”

Charles Eames answered,
“What are the boundaries of problems?”

Roulette Vendor

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:20:32 -0400

There’s an elaborate vending machine in the building at which I’m working this week. Rather than dropping cans or bottles down through a slot, the machine employs a motorized arm. The arm first travels along a horizontal track to the column in which the desired bottle resides, and then another motor moves the “hand” vertically up the arm to the correct row. It grabs the bottle and carries it back down to the lower right corner of the machine where it is handed off to another motorized holder that hinges out of the machine, allowing you to retrieve the bottle. The advantage of such a mechanism is that it can purvey large, glass bottles that a standard soda machine could not.

Unfortunately, nobody considered the fact that the labels on the bottles were not designed with a vending machine in mind. The bottles have a front and a back. Only the front of the label tells you what is in the bottle. The majority of the bottles were not facing forwards, so while I could tell the difference between Snapple and Nantucket Nectar, the actual flavors were a mystery.

I was hoping to get a sweet ice tea. I ended up with apple juice.

Hit with the Ugly Sticker

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:40:53 -0400

I was riding to lunch with a co-worker the other day and noticed that he had one of those paper floor mats that mechanics use while your car is in the shop. He had continued using it for, well, I don’t know exactly how long. I found it humorous that he was using an unattractive paper mat to protect the coordinated, carpeted floor mat that was there to protect the carpet. This is the same individual that has not yet removed the protective plastic film from the iPod Touch he received for Christmas, even though it is peeling up at the edges.

These are choices he has explicitly made. I’ve noticed many instances in which people have neglected to remove stickers from consumer electronics, such as digital cameras, video cameras, DVD players, computers, and computer peripherals. These are the stickers that point out features and specifications of the equipment. I assume the manufacturers put them on so that no matter which box is opened for use as a floor model, the information is there. There is really no reason to leave them on—they are typically unattractive, and any more, they are easily removed without leaving residual adhesive. People just don’t seem to notice them. I have to hold myself back from removing them from stuff belonging to my family members. I doubt they would notice.

Of course, I compulsively remove every label I can from everything. I pull the RFID tags out of DVD cases and keep a bottle of GooGone handy for the cheap stickers that aren’t designed to be removed. I spent several minutes examining the hideous airbag warning labels on the sun visors in my PT Cruiser to see if I could remove them. Unfortunately, they appear to be permanently affixed. They are ghastly marrs of contrasting colors and crowded typography on an otherwise aesthetically pleasing interior.

I believe the general populace has become desensitized to ugly, obtrusive advertising and pretty much ignores it, much as we have come to ignore the plethora of banner ads framing our web destinations. As Paul Rand stated,
“The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring.”

Sorry Safari

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:01:00 -0400

Now that the iPhone SDK has been released and third-party apps are on the way, nobody is claiming that web apps are the future of phone software. I had an experience the other night that gives a good argument against them.

I was writing a blog entry in my hotel room, which means I was typing into Tumblr’s site using Safari on my iPhone. Now, I don’t know the intracacies of the iPhone’s memory management, but I do know that Safari will only keep a page cached until something else needs the memory. I was a few sentences into my post when my phone rang. My wife was calling so the kids could tell me goodnight. As soon as I was done with the call, I switched back to Safari. Safari started reloading the page, which no longer contained the beginnings of my post.

Talking sMac

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:27:00 -0400

I love my Mac… which makes me all the more sensitive to its faults. I often commend Apple for their attention to detail. Now I have a question.

As smart as OS X is, why is it that if I am watching a video for several minutes, my screensaver comes on? Sure, I specified a period of inactivity after which it should start, but why is playing a video considered to be an inactive state?

Why does Time Machine perform a backup while I’m playing World of Warcraft? Or even worse, why can’t .Mac Sync and the Spotlight indexer understand that I’m doing something that will be adversely affected by the cycles they consume?

I want my system to prioritize its processes based on what I’m doing at any given moment, rather than blindly adhere to a timer.

DesignAyear

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:51:10 -0400

It was exactly one year ago today that I began this little blog. I’m happy to report that I’m getting what I wanted out of it, although it is taking more of my time than I anticipated. Although I claim to be writing as a method of furthering my own critical thinking, I must admit some satisfaction in the knowledge that DesignAday has gathered a small following. According to Google Analytics, about 50 of you visit every day, and another 50 could be considered regular readers.

So, I’ve decided its worth continuing. That said, I’m on a business trip for the next two weeks, so posts may be irregular.

Blog of the Week: Adaptive Path

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:17:02 -0400

I typically attempt to bring something new to the blogosphere on DesignAday, rather than simply pointing out posts on other blogs. I am, however, often inspired by the blogs I read. Yesterday’s post was inspired by Adaptive Path, and that’s far from the first time.

I think there are two specific attributes that make Adaptive Path’s blog stand out from the crowd.

First, it’s the blog of one of the truly great design firms of our time. Not only does the firm do great work for it’s clients, it contributes to the design community through events and publications. This is a firm that doesn’t just practice design—they participate in defining our field. It is obvious that Adaptive Path employees are encouraged to present at conferences, publish, participate in the design community, and blog, which brings me to the second attribute.

There isn’t just one or two people at Adaptive Path charged with maintaining the blog. A large percentage of their employees post, from the presidents on down—certainly the majority of the creative staff. And seeing as how it’s such a prestigious firm, these are the cream of the crop. There is rarely a day without a new post, and it’s all quality content. Furthermore, with that many people posting, they cover a lot of ground. Just a glance at their list of categories reveals everything from the expected, like Experience Design and Interaction Design, to “Idealism, uncensored” and the Bathroom Blogfest. They even put up the occasional podcast.

Everybody in the industry should be subscribed to their RSS feed. No excuses.

It’s Not Easy Being Green

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:01:28 -0400

Rachel Hinman made a very useful post to the Adaptive Path blog about a CHI presentation by Elaine Huang titled “Where do mobile phones go to die?”.

A few months back, after cracking the screen on my Palm Treo and buying iPhones for my wife and me, I donated two old Motorola phones for victims of domestic violence—they were collecting them at my church. I’m still holding onto the Treo, however, as it isn’t in working condition. I learned from Rachel that Palm has a free recycling program. It’s as easy as printing out a return label, throwing everything in a box, and dropping it off at a post office. My label is printing as I type.

As Rachel says, “We know what to do with a car when we are done with it (sell it), but we don’t know what to do with a mobile device. Most of the participants in Elaine’s study kept their old phones — some with as many as five.” It really is a matter of education.

And it isn’t a problem limited to cell phones. I have a couple boxes full of old computer peripherals and cables, most of it obsolete, and three computers that, while still functional, are well past their prime. Rachel’s post has inspired me to take the time to find something responsible to do with them. I’ll let you know what I find out. Oh, and if you have any suggestions, please drop me a line.

Narrative II

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:38:50 -0400

Building on the Time Series, Tufte gives examples of a few distinct types of narrative visualizations. The illustrative example of the life cycle of a Japanese beetle, which shows not only the development of the beetle over time, but it’s relational activities and location, inspired one of my students to visualize a skateboarding move.

Andrew’s visualization of a Backside Kickflip represents time in seconds while also breaking it into sub-sequences of the move. Furthermore, it represents the spatial position of the skater on the same axis in two dimensions: the distance traveled and the height of the jump.

The spare use of color distinguishes the arms and feet from the rest of the body. The solid green cap accentuates the direction in which the skater is looking. Color also makes very clear which side of the board you are looking at.

The concept was exquisitely executed and would be worthy of a spot on one of Tufte’s pages.